Parker Microsystems
Industrial Automation
Parker Microsystems
Industrial Automation
The Pi Compute Module is a powerful tool for custom electronics projects. But if your project requires industrial grade specifications, you’re currently out-of-luck. This is where Pi/104 comes in - with a wide temperature rating and a power supply that encompasses common industrial cabinet voltages. Pi/104 doesn’t try to do too much out of the box. Instead, it relies on an industry standard form factor for accessories, which allows people to build custom stacks to meet their goals in a cost effective way. It also means the base board is cheaper, bringing an industry-ready board to the hobby market.
At its core this is a Raspberry Pi, great for all projects electronic. It breaks out the Pi Compute Module with several added value propositions compared to other boards:
Pi/104’s industrial temp spec (-25° C to 80° C) means it stays stable longer in areas without temperature control. Where is this a benefit? In any of the following applications:
The 8-35 V power supply on the Pi/104 was sized for industrial cabinets. Two popular voltages in this setting are 12 and 24 volts. But what else runs on these voltages?
With a wide power supply range, the Pi/104 can be attached directly to many electrical systems without the need for any accessories or buying a new accessory because the voltage present changed.
Pi/104, and the PC/104 form factor, are small and sturdy. PC/104 has been around for a long time, and its proven itself to be great for embedded systems. You don’t need to have used PC/104 before to appreciate and utilize its benefits. It’s extendable through its stackable connectors, meaning one board doesn’t have to fit all purposes. Instead the "hard" computational stuff is handled by the main board so companies and individuals can focus on their project. In the past, the form factor has been notably used in:
Here’s a breakdown of compatability with existing hardware:
Not out of the box. Some work exists to convert USB to ISA and has even been tested on the Raspberry Pi, but that would require a daughtercard that pulls a channel of USB out of the Onebank connector, converts it to ISA and then has the PC/104 connector on the other side. It’s theoretically doable but not right this second.
Not supported. It just isn’t supported by the chipset and PCI is too closely tied to the processor to be emulated like ISA.
The "OneBank" connector is a subset of this standard. It is pin-compatible and will mate with a standard PCIE/104 connector. The caveat of this support is like PCI, PCIE just isn’t supported by the chip and can’t be emulated. What we routed into the OneBank connector was two channels of USB, 5 volts, 3.3 volts and ground. So we support a subset of PCIE/104 and OneBank cards which only use the USB channels. The most interesting example of this support are cards which route the USB to mPCIe and m.2 connectors allowing the use of select Cellular Modems, wifi cards, SSDs and Serial cards.
| Pi Foundation Development Kit | Gumstix Development Board | Gumstix USB-Ethernet | Pi/104 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $135 | $50 | $60 | $130 |
| GPIO | 59 | 16 | 0 | 59 |
| USB | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| USB OTG | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Display | HDMI & DSI | HDMI & DSI | No | HDMI & DSI |
| Ethernet | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| MicroSD | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Power Supply | 5 V | 5 V | 5 V | 8-35 V or 5 V |
| Temp Spec | Unspecified | Unspecified | Unspecified | -25° C to 85° C |
| Industry Standard Form Factor | No | No | No | Yes |
| Extensible Format | No | No | No | Yes |
Part acquisition will be from Mouser/Digi-Key and Samtec. PCB manufacturing will be done by a North American facility. Assembly will be handled by our partner production facility.
Production steps:
Milestone 1 - Order is placed with Samtec for "OneBank" connectors, these have significant lead time so best guess on production numbers will have to made and ordered. I expect to end up with some extra OneBank connectors.
Milestone 2 - As funds clear, orders are placed for PCB production and other parts are put on order
Milestone 3 - Estimated arrival of PCB and parts at assembly partner’s facility
Milestone 4 - Finished units are shipped to the fulfillment center
Milestone 5 - First units ship to backers
This entire process from 1-5 is estimated to take about two months, but we’ll provide regular updates during production.
At this point all shipments are planning to be shipped from the United States. Unfortunately, international shipping costs a lot so we ask that backers from other countries pay a bit more. To learn more about placing your order, please view the Crowd Supply Guide.
There is very little risk with this project. The engineering is done and prototypes have come out perfect. All potential problems left are those inherent in manufacturing anything - unanticipated component shortages and shipping delays/issues. Large scale production (>500 units) would be challenging from a logistics standpoint. But none of this is insurmountable.
Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are copyright of the RASPBERRY PI FOUNDATION. Neither this project nor Parker Microsystems are associated with with the Raspberry Pi Foundation in any way. The unit pictured is a prototype unit not for sale. Actual units may differ visually.
"Here’s something we haven’t seen before... The industrial-targeted carrier provides -25 to 80°C support and an 8-36V input with screw terminal connector."
"It’s outfitted with all the creature comforts of the original Raspberry Pi. But it also has a built in power supply that accepts 8-36 volts DC and breaks out all 56 GPIO of the CM."
"Parker Microsystems has decided to bring the PC/104 OneBank industrial standard to the Raspberry Pi world..."
"Pi/104 is a Pi Compute carrier board in PC/104 format with industrial durability."
"So, we chose to adhere to what we believed the spirit of the OneBank connector is. We populated the power, ground, and the two USB channels. The final product is a very functional industrial IoT platform."
Produced by Parker Microsystems in Fort Worth, TX.
Sold and shipped by Crowd Supply.
Continued success of the project beyond this campaign depends on getting the word out. Donations at this level will go to build surplus units for the purpose of building cool stuff to get people excited about using their Pi Compute in new ways.
One Pi/104 unit shipped to the address of your choice. I will even include paper to forever remind you of what you bought and which pins do what. Pi Compute Module not included.
I will put two Pi/104's in a single box and ship them to an address of your choice. Pretty much all of that saved shipping overhead returned to you. You'll also get the handy pinout guide. Pi Compute Module not included.
Product management and development for connected embedded systems, targeting industrial and consumer markets.
